


A Blurry Photograph (That I Have Since Ignored)

by seasweaterniall



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, First War with Voldemort, Godfather Harry Potter, Harry Potter Next Generation, M/M, Post-Second War with Voldemort, Slight Cannon divergence, everyone is still very much dead., mostly it's cannon, potter kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-23 03:32:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9639050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seasweaterniall/pseuds/seasweaterniall
Summary: Teddy Lupin finds a box of old photographs in his Godfather's attic.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I think I wrote this when I was high and ranting about how Remus was bisexual I can't remember but anyways. Title from the song Aperture by Sleeping at Last

“What’re you doing?” the seventeen year old asked, his hair changing from a turquoise to an excited yellow.

Harry Potter’s head appeared from behind a stack of boxes towards the back of the large attic, his black hair stuck up in all different directions and a smear of white sheet rock across his dark cheek. Harry looked to his godson, Teddy Lupin, who was shuffling through the sea of boxes. Harry stood to his full height, which was a few inches shorter than Teddy, and adjusted his round glasses so that they weren’t crooked.

“Cleaning,” Harry replied, hands on his hips with a teasing grin on his face. “All this stuff ended up in our attic somehow. I’ll have to ask Molly.”

Teddy fixed him with an incredulous look, his hair returning to its usual color, “Y’know you’re a wizard, yeah?”

Harry rolled his green eyes, the ones Teddy has seen in photographs of a red haired woman caught mid laugh, and said, “I’m going through these boxes. They’re from…before.”

Teddy looked down to his scuffed shoes then, because he knew that ‘before’ meant a lifetime ago, and even now speaking about it made it feel like yesterday. Teddy didn’t miss Harry’s fingers linger on the white, faded, zigzagging scar that seemed to split across his forehead before his fingers pushed back his fringe.

“Anything good?” Teddy asked after a moment’s silence. He fidgeted with his lip ring with his top teeth, his hands in the back pockets of his ripped jeans.

Harry was about to reply, when there was a loud cry of “JAMES!” from below that sounded like it came from Albus, the Potter’s middle child. There was a screech that could only belong to Lily Luna, and a loud bang.

“I should go sort that out,” Harry sighed. He passed Teddy and headed for the trapdoor of the attic. “First day of your last year is tomorrow, yeah? Don’t stay up here too long, Huffle-punk.”

Teddy scoffed, but couldn’t hide the smile as his godfather descended to the second floor of the house to see what kind of trouble his children had gotten into this time. As tomorrow was Teddy’s first day of his final year, it was also James Sirius’s first time at Hogwarts ever, and there was no doubt he was already up to something troublesome. He was just popping by for a visit to see his god-family for a bit before heading out to a muggle concert with Victorie. He decided he should be going, but curiosity got the better of him, and he ventured to the far space of the attic where Harry had been previously.

There was a box already opened, dust covered papers and moving photographs filled it to the brim. What made Teddy plant himself in front of the box was the picture on the top. It was of a couple, a couple that Teddy would recognize even without the scribbled “Remus and Tonks 1996” in Harry’s scrawl on the white strip surrounding the photograph.

His mother was grinning, his father holding tightly to his mother and leaning in to press a kiss to her cheek. The camera caught her small giggle. Teddy fidgeted with the many piercings in his ear with his fingers, a nervous habit he had. Setting the photo aside, he dove into the rest of the box. Many photos were just of other Order Members Teddy had heard of but didn’t recognize without their identification written on the picture.

He finally found one of his father, hair a peppering gray at his temples and the pale scar crossing the bridge of his freckled nose, holding a bundle of baby with neon green hair. Remus didn’t notice the picture being taken, because he didn’t look up from the newborn baby. Teddy felt tears well up in his eyes, and he set it aside with the rest of the pictures and notes from the war time.

He peaked into the box again, and noticed a smaller shoebox taped shut. Furrowing his brow, Teddy picked it up gingerly and peeled back the tape in order to take the lid off. Inside were more pictures, but they looked older. The ones on top were of figures Teddy had only heard stories about from Harry or the Weasleys. Sometimes his Gran, if she was up to the task.

The first picture he picked up was of a young couple that looked no older than twenty. The woman had dark red hair and a smattering of freckles. When she looked at the camera, her smiling green eyes were the ones Teddy knew his godfather had. She was smiling, being picked up around the waist by a man who looked nearly identical to Harry, but his eyes were hazel and his skin a bit darker. Flipping the picture over, Teddy read “Lils and James 1978” in handwriting he didn’t recognize. Sighing and feeling a weight from the ghosts of all of their pasts, he set it aside.

Teddy knew these were Harry’s parents, the ones who his children were named for. But he saw a different James downstairs terrorizing his younger siblings, with dark red hair and Ginny’s brown eyes. Lily Luna was her own person, as well. She took more after Ginny, her hair more a light orange than her grandmother’s. But Teddy knew what it was like to be named for the dead, and he knew he looked nothing like his grandfather, but that didn’t stop his Gran from tearing up when Victorie called him “Ted” once on a whim.

Teddy then froze, his eyes catching on a picture of a younger version of his father. It was just of him, sitting in an armchair with far less gray hairs and less worries weighing down his shoulders. He smiled tiredly at the camera, giving it a small wave. Captivated, Teddy tore through the shoe box to find more of his father, a lost life no one spoke of him having. There were pictures of him with James and Lily Potter, and a blonde man Teddy never recalled hearing about. There was a picture of James Potter hugging another young man tightly. His hair was curly, shoulder length and black, and he was smiling at the camera and fiercely hugging James like he was afraid to let go. _Sirius Black_ Teddy thought with a small smile. Harry’s godfather.

Proceeding with the pictures, Teddy stumbled upon a few of his father with Sirius. They had arms slung around each other, Sirius had his arms wrapped around his father’s waist, or they were tangling their fingers together with fond smiles. Confused, Teddy shuffled through the dust and found the last few photographs. Eyes wide, he held in his hand a picture of Sirius and his father sharing a kiss and breaking apart with a laugh.

Teddy felt a rage burn inside of him that he couldn’t explain. The last picture in the box was Remus curled against Sirius, both of them asleep on a couch in someone’s house lifetimes ago. Sirius’s head was lolled back and his mouth open in a snore while Remus was wrapped in a blanket pressed close to his side.

“Teddy, you still up here?” a voice hollered, and Teddy quickly wiped at his burning eyes and the frustrated tears that fell down his cheeks. “Victorie is here, said you were supposed to meet her- what’s wrong?”

He didn’t notice Harry had crossed the attic space and was now standing in front of him. He knelt down in front of his godson, a look of concern evident in his expression as he thumbed away a stray tear on Teddy’s cheek.

“Why are…” Harry trailed off as he looked at the pictures scattered around Teddy. “Oh, Teddy.”

“Did...how…” Teddy shrugged, “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying-”

Harry scoffed, “Teddy, you don’t have to apologize for feeling.”

Teddy offered a watery smile, then frowned a gestured to the picture of the two young men kissing.

Harry followed his questioning gaze and nodded.

“Did he even love my mum?”

Harry studied Teddy for a while, as if trying to figure out something adequate to say. Finally, he said, “Teddy, I knew your father for such a limited time...it wasn’t fair. It isn’t fair you only spent a few days with them. But, I knew that he did love your mother, so much. I believe he had only been in love twice in his life.”

“He was the first?” Teddy whispered, emotion building up in his chest at the mention of his father.

Harry looked at the photo with a sad expression that revealed a past that could have been had the mistakes and destruction passed them by.

“He was the first.”

Teddy thought for a moment, “Then he was bisexual?”

Harry let a grin spread across his face, “I don’t think he liked labels.”

Teddy rolled his eyes, “Like how you and Draco don’t like labels-?”

Harry covered his ears like a child and made loud noises as if to drown out Teddy’s voice. Teddy laughed and said when Harry finished his obnoxious behavior. “Look how happy Ginny and Luna are.”

“That’s true. I’m glad we realized we were better as friends before things turned bad,” Harry admitted.

“Yeah, it’s cute. It’s like the kids’ve got three parents. Possibly four…?”

Harry shoved Teddy’s shoulder playfully as he stood up to leave, “Victorie’s waiting downstairs.”

“Tell her I’ll be down in a second,” Teddy said. Harry waved over his shoulder, leaving the attic.

Teddy gathered all the photos and put them back in the shoebox, keeping the one of his father sat in the armchair. After successfully cleaning up and only taking two more pictures (of his parents together, and he and his father when he was a newborn), he headed down the attic ladder to the second floor. As soon as his feet touched the ground, a body ran into him.

“Oi-!”

“Teddy, Jamie’s gonna hex me! Run!” Lily squealed, dashing past and down the hallway. Moments later, a newly turned eleven year old with fiery red hair was racing towards him after his sister. Teddy grabbed James around the waist to trap him in a hold.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Teddy quirked a pierced eyebrow at his godbrother.

“Oh, I’m so sorry Mr. Headboy,” James mocked, wiggling from his grip and hurrying after his sister, his new wand gripped tightly in his hand.

“James Sirius, stop terrorizing your sister!” Harry shouted from downstairs.

The third and middle child emerged at a much slower pace, watching his brother chase his sister down the stairs with a bored expression, “He doesn’t actually know any-”

“I know, Al,” Teddy smiled, slinging an arm around Albus and the two of them went down stairs to where an exasperated Victorie was trying to get Lily to stop using her as a shield.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't ship Teddy with anyone really lol and I'm slightly a slut for Drarry. But I would pull a Titanic and die with Ginny/Luna okay that ship is too pure. I also don't believe that Harry and Ginny could just get together and have kids right after the war when so much has happened to them?? Idk I just see them as being better best friends who raise their kids together.


End file.
